Lost in Time
by CmmndrShepard
Summary: When Commander Ariel Shepard chose the Destroy option, she didn't expect to live, that was a given, but she definitely didn't expect to wake up in Thedas. In turn, she finds out she has a whole new world to save. Follow her as she tries to save Thedas, and get back to her own time, and the man she promised she'd never leave. **Contains end-game spoilers about Mass Effect 3**


The last thing Shepard remembered was Hackett telling her the crucible hadn't fired, one more thing she had to do despite feeling like she'd collapse and die any moment, she seemed to be right about the collapsing part, she passed out as soon as she reached the console.

"Wake up"

It took all of her strength to do so, but Shepard slowly made her way to her feet. The blonde looked around, trying to see who, or what, had woken her up. The minute the marine laid eyes on the VI, her breath hitched in her throat. It looked exactly like the little boy she had seen on the Citadel, the one that she watched get destroyed by a reaper, the very same that had been appearing in her nightmares throughout this entire ordeal.

"What?" she muttered, disoriented, "Where am I?"

"The Citadel," the VI answered calmly, "it's my home."

Shepard shook her head, "Who are you?" she tried, hoping for a direct answer.

"I am the Catalyst." It replied.

"I thought the Citadel was the Catalyst." What the hell did it mean? None of this made any sense.

"No. The Citadel is a part of me."

 _Didn't it just say the Citadel was its home?_ Shepard shook her head, she needed to focus on the main problem at hand.

"I need to stop the Reapers, do you know how I can do that?" she asked, hoping that whatever the Catalyst really was it knew how to stop them.

"Perhaps. I control the Reapers. They are my solution." it stated calmly.

"The solution to what?" Shepard was confused as all hell; how could the Reapers solve anything? All they did was bring death and pain, and that wasn't' the way to solve things. She knew this better than anyone.

"Chaos. The created will always rebel against their creators, but we found a way to stop that from happening. A way to restore order."

The blonde was fuming, but she was far too exhausted to show it physically, instead she settled for using her voice. It was her main tool in ending conflicts after all.

"By wiping out organic life?" she spat, the anger she felt encompassing each and every word.

"No. We harvest advanced civilizations, leaving the younger ones alone. Just as we left your people alive the last time we were here."

"But you killed the rest?" Shepard could hardly believe what she was hearing, how could anyone, how could _anything_ think it was acceptable to commit genocide on a galactic level simply because they thought it was a good idea?

"We helped them ascend so they could make way for new life. Storing the old life in Reaper form."

"I think we'd rather keep our own form." The blonde retorted, she still couldn't fathom how anyone could justify this.

"No you can't. Without us to stop it, synthetics would destroy all organics. We've created the cycle so that never happens. That's the solution."

Shepard shook her head, deciding it'd be better to change the subject and find out more information before she began to argue more.

"You're the Catalyst but what are you?" she asked, hoping to get some answers.

"A construct. An intelligence designed eons ago to solve a problem. I was created to bring balance. To be the Catalyst for peace between organics and synthetics."

"So you're just an AI?" Shepard stated, just some form of Artificial Intelligence hell bent on destroying organic life. EDI, but far less friendly.

"In as much as you are just an animal. I embody the collective intelligence of all Reapers."

So a consensus. Like the Geth. "But you were created?"

"Correct."

"By who?" she inquired, if she ever got the chance she'd find out exactly who it was, and travel back in time to stop this bullshit if she had to.

"By ones who recognized that conflict would always arise between synthetics and organics. I was first created to oversee the relations between synthetic and organic life. To establish a connection. But our efforts ended in conflict. So a new solution was required."

"The Reapers?"

"Precisely."

Shepard wanted to say something along the lines of _That didn't answer my question, asshole._ But she decided against it. At least for now.

"Where did the Reapers come from? Did you create them?" she'd at least get background on the Reapers while she was here.

"My Creators gave them form. I gave them function. They in turn give me purpose. The Reapers are a synthetic representation of my creators."

"And what happened to your creators?" she inquired, more about the Catalyst's creators.

"They became the first true Reaper. They did not approve, but it was the only solution."

"You said that before, but how did the Reapers solve anything?" Shepard still couldn't see how the Reapers were good for anything. All they did was cause death and destruction, none of that was ever good.

"Organics create synthetics to improve their own existence, but those improvements have limits. To exceed those limits, synthetics must be allowed to evolve. They must by definition surpass their creators. The result is conflict, destruction, chaos. It is inevitable. Reapers harvest all life. Organic and synthetic, preserving them before they are forever lost to this conflict.

How is this not conflict? "We are at war with the Reapers right now." Hundreds of thousands of people had died, there wasn't any other way to describe what was happening than conflict.

"You may be at conflict with the Reapers but they are not interested in war."

"I find that hard to believe." Yeah right, the Reapers invade every major civilization and that's not considered war?

"When fire burns, is it at war? Is it in conflict? Or is it simply doing what it was created to do? We are no different. We harvest your bodies, your knowledge, your creations. We preserve it, to be reborn in the form of a Reaper. Like a cleansing fire, we restore balance…New life both organic and synthetic can flourish."

Shepard couldn't believe that he, it, whatever it was, was making comparisons to things that weren't even sentient in order to prove its point. The Reapers were not fire, they were sentient beings, hell bent on destroying the things she knew and loved.

"What do you know about the crucible?" she asked, changing the subject again as she knew she wouldn't get any further with her previous argument.

"The device you refer to as the crucible is little more than a power source. However, in combination with the citadel and the relays it is capable of releasing tremendous amounts of energy throughout the galaxy. It is crude but effective and adaptive in its design."

"Who designed it?" she needed to know what species started this whole thing, she'd have to thank them later.

"You would not know them and there is not enough time to explain. We first noted the concept for this device several cycles ago. With each passing cycle the design has no doubt evolved."

"Why didn't you stop it?" Shepard inquired, if something were trying to eradicate her—oh wait they were! She'd try and find some way to stop it. Which she apparently has.

"We believed the concept had been eradicated. Clearly organic are more resourceful than we realised."

Damn right we are.

"But you're taking away our future, without future we have no hope. Without hope we might as well be machines, programmed to do as we are told." She retorted, the anger rising inside her, her blood boiling.

"You have hope, more than you think. The fact that you are standing here, the first organic ever proves it. But it also proves my solution won't work anymore."

Suck it Reapers, you just got taken down a notch.

"So now what?" she asked.

"We find a new solution."

"Why are you telling me this? Why help me?" it seemed like the thing was pretty hell bent on destroying them a few minutes ago, why the sudden change of heart?

"You have altered the variables."

"What do you mean?" what variables were there to begin with?

"The crucible changed me, created new…possibilities. But I can't make them happen. If there is to be a new solution. You must act. It is now in your power to destroy us. But be warned, others will be destroyed as well. The crucible will not discriminate. All synthetics will be targeted. Even you are partly synthetic."

EDI could die, and she'd just brokered peace between the Geth and the Quarians, that would tear everything she had worked so hard to do apart. So far it seemed like the best option though, no more Reapers.

"What exactly will happen?" she questioned, putting stress on exactly.

"Your crucible device appears to be largely intact. However, the effects of the blast will not be constrained to the Reapers. Technology you rely on will be affected. But those who survive should have little difficulty in repairing the damage... There will still be loses but no more than what has already been lost."

"But the Reapers will be destroyed?" she asked hopefully.

"Yes but the peace won't last. Soon your children will create synthetics and then the chaos will come back."

"There has to be another way." Even though she was dead set on destroying these fuckers, Shepard had to know all the possibilities before deciding on a plan of action.

"There is, you could instead use the energy of the crucible to seize control of the Reapers."

Maybe the Illusive Man wasn't quite as crazy as she thought, at least about one thing. "So the Illusive Man was right after all?"

"Yes but he could never have taken control, because we already controlled him."

Shepard winced thinking of when he forced her to shoot Anderson.

"But I can?" not that she would, she'd never fulfill the Illusive Man's ideas, not in this lifetime or the next. Or perhaps maybe last lifetime or this lifetime was more appropriate considering she had already died once.

"You will die; you will control us but you will lose everything you have."

That in and of itself ruled it out for her completely, she had to live, for Kaidan, she couldn't leave him, not again.

"How can I control the Reapers if I'm dead?"

"Your corporeal form will be dissolved. But your thoughts and even your memories will continue. You will no longer be organic. Your connection to your kind will be lost. Although you will remain aware of their existence."

"But the Reapers will obey me?" Javik would probably kill them all anyways when he got the chance.

"Yes. We will be yours to control and direct as you see fit."

"Hmm…" she felt it was best to appear as though she was mulling it over, though she had made her decision about two minutes into the conversation, these fuckers were going down.

"There is another solution…Synthesis."

"And that is?" Shepard was exhausted, and just wanted this damn thing to cut to the chase.

"Add your energy to the crucibles. The chain reaction will combine all synthetic and organic life into a new framework. A new DNA."

"Explain how my energy can be added to the crucible." Admittedly, Shepard was just curious as to how this thing thought that was possible.

"Your organic energy. The essence of who and what you are, will be broken down and then dispersed."

"To do what exactly?" this just sounded like another way to let the Reapers continue to terrorize the galaxy.

"The energy of the crucible, released in this way will alter the matrix of all organic life in the galaxy. Organics seek perfection through technology, synthetics seek perfection through understanding. Organics will be perfected by integrating fully with synthetic technology. Synthetics in turn will finally have understanding of organics. It is the ideal solution. Now that we know it is possible, it is inevitable we will reach synthesis."

"Why couldn't you do it sooner?" it seemed simple enough if it was so confident about Synthesis.

"We have tried…a similar solution in the past. But it has always failed."

"Why?" she wasn't going to sacrifice herself for some bullshit theory that might not even work.

"Because the organics were not ready, it is not something that can be…forced. You are ready and you may choose it."

What happened to the whole spiel about how she was the only organic that had made it this far?

"You're asking me to change everything, everyone. I can't make that decision. And I won't." she wouldn't allow the lives of everyone in the galaxy to be changed because of this decision.

"Why not? Synthetics are already part of you. Can you imagine your life without them?"

"That is beside the point." This thing was getting on her nerves.

"Your time is at an end, you must decide."

"Let's get this over with." She sighed.

"Do what you must."

In all honesty she wanted to shoot the stupid fucking AI, instead, she limped towards the option the AI had designated as destroying the Reapers, pistol drawn. She wasn't letting one of those motherfuckers live.

As soon as she reached a respectable distance, she began firing. One shot, two shots, three shots. The Reaper tech exploded, and she blacked out.

"Tell me why we shouldn't kill you now."


End file.
